On finally phoning

Why is it so hard to phone people?

Yesterday I phoned someone I’d been meaning to phone for more than a week. I got the number from a friend, and left it sitting in a message, instead of pasting it in to the phone part of my phone, the part which I probably use least, and pressing ‘call’.

When I finally got round to it, it took all of 5 minutes to say all that needed saying. I now have an appointment with a specialist who might hopefully be able to work out what’s going on in my stomach.

That was a medical call, but even personal calls are a bit problematic. I can reel off a list of more people than I care to admit, who I have been meaning to phone for much longer than the specialist…

…and the longer I leave it, the more awkward it’s going to be when I finally do…

…Maybe. Except if it isn’t. Maybe they’re waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ to phone me, and would be relieved if I phoned them instead.

Maybe they don’t care about the length of time I’ve wanted to call but didn’t. Maybe they’d just like to talk.

Maybe I should just make time for one person every couple of days – I could probably be done by Christmas!!

0 Replies to “On finally phoning”

Lol! I know exactly what you mean ? Sending texts and emails is easy but when it comes to phone calls, those get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list, left for tomorrow or simply ignored till it’s a month later and you’re wondering if you should even bother anymore.. ?

One of the things about doing so much travelling is that maintaining friendships isn’t easy. It would be easy to be seen as absent because I’m far away, and supposedly busy. It’s commonplace for people back home to say, ‘Cat’s away, we’ll catch up when she gets back’. It’s harder to arrange time to actually talk, especially when most of my friends aren’t the most sociably forward of people. What I’ve learnt is to ask for the call. For some reason people need to be told that I really want to speak to them to believe I really do love talking to them. Once we start speaking it’s normal and natural. We speak more and more. The little bit of effort pays off.